"Can I sleep now?"
"Just-just wait! I got one more! Just one more theory!"
In a small household in northern Alabama, America, 2163, Royce Hakurei, a 26 year old conspiracy theorist was trying to impress his younger sister Rinky Hakurei.
"Come on, Rinky, be a sport and hear your brother out will ya?" Royce's wife Jullia said, trying to cheer her up.
"Ugh fine, let's hear it." Rinky sat back on the floor and groaned.
"Okay," Royce cleared his throat, "you know how people go missing now and then?"
"Yeah?"
"Well, a hypothesis I had with my team is that—— the Tigers are back in town." he said dramatically.
"The Tigers?" Rinky stared at Royce unfazed, "the race that started World War Four? Weren't they like forced to all stray on an island surrounded by a border?"
"Yeah! But what if they escaped? What if, they have familiars on the other side? What if they are blending among us right now?"
"Ooh…cool. Right, Rinky?" Jullia said.
"Mhm, good night." Rinky immediately got up and walked to her room.
Seeing her leaving, Royce tried to call her back, but then he stopped for a second, sighed and put his hand down.
"Oh and also…" Rinky turned her head and said, "You should really find another job. I mean, we are foxes after all. I know the stereotypes are not that present but, it's still there."
Hearing this, Royce lowered his head thinking.
"Yeah, I know. Don't worry."
Rinky sighed, and closed her room door.
Royce sat in silence and let out a deep breath.
Seeing this, Jullia sat closer to him and patted his back, "We tried our best. Let's go to bed, honey."
"…yeah."
In Rinky's room, she lay flat on her bed and slowly close her eyes. When she opened it, she found herself lying at the beach.
"A beach? Not bad." she lied and watched the sea waves, then she remembered something and got up.
She walked all over the beach, then in the bar house, she found a tall woman hiding under the counter with her arms full of popsicle.
"Found ya, Qinny! Wait are you hiding these from me?" Rinky exclaimed excitedly.
Qinny immediately stood up, dropping a few popsicles, "Hiding? Like hell I am! I'm just…fine here you go."
"You picked the one that dropped on the floor!"
"Well someone's have to eat them."
"You eat it then!"
Back by the bay, Rinky and Qinny laid on beach mats eating their popsicles while enjoying to view.
"You know, this might be the best dream you've even had." Qinny complimented.
"Aw thanks...hey Qinny, how come I never see you grow old? Aren't you in your 30s or something? I don't see a wrinkle." Rinky asked.
"…" Qinny stood up and said in a strict tone, "Rinky, you've known me my whole life, not seeing a clear change is normal for anyone."
Qinny walked off, and Rinky asked, "Wait, where you going?"
"Restroom. The popsicle dripped on my hand."
"…there's seawater right here." Rinky murmured.
The next day, school year started.
"Okay class, does anyone know the origin of us Zoologians?" the teacher asked.
"I know, it's the wicked experiment of Dr Kinbat!" a student answered.
"Exactly, it was said that before the experiment, our ancestors were called humans, and Cats, Foxes, Wolves and Tigers were once considered wild animals, until a radiation by Dr Kinbat spread across the world that mutated us and killed them." the teacher explained.
At the back corner seat, Rinky yawned with her face resting on her arm, "What kind of teacher actually teaches on the first day..?" she thought.
"Students, write down the notes on the board, this will be in the History test." the teacher said as she started writing on the board.
Rinky exhaled lightly in boredom, took out her notebook and started copying the notes. Then she noticed her seat neighbour struggling to see the board.
Then she realised, that student was Craynt Marlver, the cat with a half burnt face who gained the most attention in school at the first day, and not in a good way.
Rinky saw him trying to look at other students' notebook, but when the students saw him looking, they blocked the notes with their arms. Craynt sighed and tried to read the words on the board again.
Without second thought, Rinky placed her notebook on Craynt's table. In shock, he turned his head to her. Rinky smiled and gave him a thumbs up.
Seeing this, Craynt smiled awkwardly and turned back to write the notes with a faint smile on his face.
During lunch break, Rinky stretched her arms, then laid on the table. A group of cat girls walked over to Rinky's table and cheerfully asked, "Hey, you're Rinky, right?"
Rinky lazily lifted her head and replied, "Yep, that's me. What's up?"
"Well, it's the start of the semester, I thought maybe we could get to know our classmates better. So let's go to the cafeteria together! Um, my name is Catharina!"
"…sure." Rinky shrugged.
In the cafeteria, the group of students were bonding really well, the conversations were lively and playful, until Rinky started talking.
"I swear if I was the main character in that movie I would have BASHED that guy's head and DRIVE HIS FACE THROUGH THE CURB!!"
Rinky was saying things like this that were so out of pocket and loudly. Making weird faces as a gag and throwing her hands in the air. Everyone was more or less really uncomfortable and smiled awkwardly.
When the bell rang, they all went to class, Rinky went up to the group of girls and said gleefully, "Man was today fun, let's eat again someday!"
"Oh, um, actually…" Catharina said hesitatingly, "We'll be really busy for this semester so I don't think we can, sorry…"
Rinky tilted her head, "Really? Okay then, no problem. Go ahead and work on your things!" she said and went back to her seat, she heard whispers when she turned.
"She was really loud, don't you think?"
"Yeah, it's like she's not even a girl."
"I'm glad you got rid of her, Catharina."
Rinky looked at the floor, "I heard that…" she murmured to herself, then she thought, "Maybe I should just shut it."
Just then, Craynt appeared and handed Rinky her notebook, he slightly lifted his head while trying to avoid eye contact, "Um…thanks for the notes."
"Oh, yeah, you're welcome." Rinky took her notebook back and put it on her table.
She saw Craynt playing with his shaky fingers and his tail wagging aggresively, seemingly hesitating to say something, so she sighed and said, "Do you have something you want to tell me?"
"Uh-! It's n-nothing…I'll just go back to my seat…" he walked away.
"Where are you going? You sit next to me."
"Oh-my bad…"
Seeing Craynt being really jumpy when talking to her, Rinky grew some interest for him, and before she knew it, she was staring at him until the teacher walked in.
After school…
Rinky walked home, through the convenience store, and a left turn to near the garden.
She had always taken the same route home, but this time, the garden felt different. The atmosphere felt eerie, and there were crows cawing nonstop on the trees, there was rarely any crow in that area.
But she ignored it and thought of it as her imagination. Not knowing that one of the crows was staring at her. Its eyes were showing spiralling red light.
Somewhere in an underground bar, a man's eyes shared the same red spiral.
"Target acquired."